


Purpose of Destruction

by IGotNothin



Series: Freelancer [2]
Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF
Genre: Ah AI au, rvb
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-03
Updated: 2015-05-10
Packaged: 2018-03-28 22:15:00
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 4,542
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3871678
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/IGotNothin/pseuds/IGotNothin
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Two weeks, after the escape of a lifetime, and Geoff just wants to live out his days in peace. Of course, with the name “The Meta 2.0”, and with Project Recovery finding itself under new management, Geoff is going to have to wait a few weeks for his vacation.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Fairy Tales Don't Always End Well

Once upon a time, armor had been comfortable. It had snapped around her chest, and her legs, and her head, and she had smugly walked without even recognizing the fact that it was on. She had flashed that familiar red suit whenever she met someone. Whenever she threatened someone. Whenever she so much as blinked at someone- friend or enemy. It had become her symbol just as much as the name “Jersey” had.

Now, it just felt heavy.

The soldiers around her still wore their armor like a second skin. Other than Caleb,  and to a lesser extent, Gus, she had rarely seen them outside of their respective suits. Kdin, with his purple and black armor, hiding dozens of knives and one large sword. Matt with his red and black suit, and the assault rifle slung across his back. Caleb, sometimes, with white and a crossed red, symbolizing his status as a medic. Their suits had become as much a part of them as their limbs were.

She was the same. She had paraded across her Recovery base daily, showing off her polished armor, with a grin and a wave. Every year, she would force Griffon to make her a new one, with all of the advancements that that year had gained- few as they may be. Every month, she would send it back for repairs.

Now, she just felt awkward.

“You broke it already?” The astonishment in Griffon’s voice was incredible. Lindsay could understand her shock.  It had only been two weeks, and she had come back with armor that had been completely shattered. Lindsay would have been shocked, too.

* * *

 

_Lindsay stared out at the void of space,  more terrified than she cared to admit. The dense darkness was only broken by the floating rock in the middle of it all. If this plan was going to work, she was going to have to fall onto it._

_Behind her, Geoff was nodding, as Ryan spat out a string of calculations. If she hit the rock too soon, every bone in her body would shatter. Too late and she would miss it entirely. She was going to need to jump at the perfect time, or she was not going to survive._

_“Be careful, Lindsay.” Michael warned her. It would have been more touching if he had actually been looking at her, instead of at the floor._

_“On three,” Ryan announced, suddenly. Despite her training, Lindsay tensed, preparing herself for the fall. This was going to hurt regardless of whether she was relaxed or not. It was going to hurt a lot. “Two, one!”_

_Michael flickered out of view, and Lindsay jumped._

* * *

Lindsay shut her eyes, as the memory replayed. She could still remember the ear-shattering crack, as her back shattered the surface of that asteroid. She had been forced to lay there, in absolute agony, for hours, as she awaited the arrival of her team (namely Kdin). She had been trapped in broken pieces of armor, forced to watch as her newly-found allies abandoned her. It was luck, that kept her oxygen tank undamaged. She would have been long dead, otherwise.

She probably would be dead, if the new Director got his way. From what she had heard of him, he wasn't a very Freelancer-happy man.

“Are you alright?” Griffon asked.

“I’m fine.” She said it too quickly and too defensively, but if Griffon noticed, she didn’t mention it. Lindsay owed her for that.

Griffon took the suit from her, not even grunting from the weight of it, and laid it out on her workbench. Seeing all of those pieces broken and shattered into nothingness felt to Lindsay like having a knife jammed into her throat. It was almost as bad as losing Michael had been.

That suit was Lindsay's. It was one of the few things that she had that was undoubtedly hers- the other being her gun. No one could take it from her, and if they tried she could beat them to a pulp. Seeing it shattered hurt.

“I’m guessing Geoff won.” Griffon said, smoothly. There was an edge to her voice that sounded pleased. Lindsay could understand that. Griffon and Geoff had always been close. It was no surprise that Griffon would be happy that she had gotten hurt, after trying to hurt Griffon’s who-even-knows-what-he-was-to-her.

Lindsay almost felt bad for her, but then, she remembered that Griffon was wholeheartedly not a fan of her, and she stopped caring.

“That’s saying something.” Lindsay scoffed, allowing a false anger to slip into her tone. She hadn’t been angry at Geoff for abandoning her. It had been a mutual agreement to leave her behind for Recovery to find, and there was no way for them to set her down without her jumping. It had been Geoff’s AI that had ensured that she wouldn’t be crushed upon landing. She was in no way angry at him.

But in Recovery sometimes a lie was necessary to maintain your status. That was something that Lindsay had learned after her first days with them.

* * *

 

“ _Agent Jersey, how do you feel about the dispelling of Mu? Any major physical or emotional reactions to it?”_

_“I’m fine.” She wasn’t. Not at all. She still felt like she was missing a part of herself. One that had screamed and fought and suffered as they had tried to remove him. One that she needed to get back, or nothing was ever going to be right again._

_“And the hostility from the other agents? Surely they must have been counterproductive to your efforts to resolve your emotions over Mu,” He paused. "If they were, in any way, present."_

_“They don’t matter.” And they wouldn’t. Not when she beat them within an inch of their life, and pushed them off of that inch, like they had done to her best friend._

_“Do you think that you could ever work with another agent or another AI ever again?”_

_“No.” Michael was it. Michael was her friend- her only true confidante. Michael was the only AI that she wanted to work with, and he was gone. They had killed him, and they had stomped on his memory._

_Lindsay was not going to ever work with another agent, either. She was going to kill them before they could even try. After what they had done to Michael, they deserved it._

* * *

 

“How is Geoff?” There was concern in Griffon’s voice, now. If Lindsay hadn’t been trained to latch onto that, she likely would have missed it. But under a thousand layers of hatred and regret, she could hear it.

“He beat my ass, so I’d say he’s good.” He was better than good. Apparently, he’d found a family. Lindsay missed that opportunity years ago.

“How’s Jack?” There was a hesitence in her tone, now. As if she wasn’t sure if she should be talking about it, or not.

She shouldn’t be. The existence of the AI was classified information. Information that was definitely not meant for the ears of a mechanic. There was no way that she should know about him.

“How do you know about Jack?”

“Geoff didn't spend all of these years alone, Jersey. Comm reception works great on Sidewinder.” There was a smirk on her face now.

Because of course Geoff had broken every single rule in the Recovery handbook, in one foul swoop. Of course he had. Of course he had maintained contact with someone _about classified information_. Why wouldn’t he have?

Really, she should have expected this.

“How much did he tell you?”

“Enough. How’s the metastability?” The nonchalance in her voice was starting to get on Lindsay’s nerves. Because she wasn’t supposed to know about that. Geoff had been crazy for thinking that, and he wasn’t supposed to say that to anyone else.

The metastability was a recent worry of his. He had only dropped her off a week ago, and that was when he was really starting to wonder about it. If Griffon knew about that, he would have had to have told her on the day that Lindsay left.

How had he known that Griffon wouldn’t just tell the UNSC his location? A thousand other people in Recovery would have, without hesitation. Why had he just trusted this one _mechanic_ with his life, more than he had ever trusted his entire team? It was stupid.

“How long should it be until my armor’s fixed?” Lindsay asked, carefully ignoring the mechanic’s question. Griffon grinned, a cold and sarcastic smile. She obviously did not care at all about the armor's status. In her place, Lindsay probably wouldn’t have, either.

“I don’t think you can fix this,” Griffon responded, just as willing to drop the conversation. She grabbed hold of the shattered thigh plating, that was split down the middle. Half of it was completely missing. “We may have to make you a new set.”

That wasn’t good news, at all. Lindsay loved her armor. She had had it for seven months, and had all the settings that she needed it to. She was going to need to reset everything.

“Great.” She muttered.

“What color do you want?” Griffon asked, grabbing a clipboard off of her table.

Lindsay groaned. It was the same ridiculous process that they always had. She never answered any differently. Why couldn’t Griffon just look at her records from last year?

“Color red.” For some reason, she had always been attached to that color. Even if it made her look like a recruit from the simulation troopers, she liked it. It helped her blend in, better.

“Shade?”

“Red-red.” She said, bluntly. Griffon jotted it down on her paper.

“How thick do you want it?”

“Standard.”

“Any height differentiation?”

“Nope.” Lindsay said. She didn’t need to enhance her height to fight people. Besides, it only served to make the armor heavier. She never found a point to that. Intimidation had a limit, for her. She didn’t need to overwork herself to intimidate people. She did that, regardless of any added technology.

“Weight?”

“80 pounds.” That was the most that she could bear, comfortably. She had learned that after days of trying to heft 100 pounds of armor on her back. That had been a bad week.

“Any armor linings?”

“Nope.” Simulation troopers didn’t have any secondary colorings, and if Lindsay wanted to emulate them, she couldn’t have any, either.

“Enhancements?”

“Armor lockup.”

Honestly, there was no point to armor enhancements, anymore. Without AI to control them, it became a pointless feature. Still, it was required by Lindsay’s contract, so she dealt with the extra weight.

“What’s your sigil?”

“Standard UNSC.”

“Do you want AI compatibility?” Griffon already had her pen hovering over the “No” option on her clipboard. Lindsay didn’t really understand why. She had never once even hinted that she didn’t want AI control. Had requested it every time, for a reason that she couldn’t even remember, anymore. She had been through his process countless times, since Freelancer had fallen, and never once had she said “No.”

This time, though, she considered it. Michael wasn’t coming back. If that was the reason, even subconsciously, that she had always asked for it, there was no point. Michael seemed to like it with the others. She wasn’t going to intrude on that.

But she was still about to lose the help of the military. She could use every bit of help that she could find along the way.

“Yes.” Lindsay said, mustering as much calmness as she possibly could.

The mechanic gave her an odd look, but didn’t question it. Lindsay was thankful for that.

“Will do. Is that all, Agent Jersey?”

“That’s all.”

“By the way, Jersey. Do you have the file?” There was a slight concern in her voice. As if she was afraid that Lindsay was going to turn around and walk away without another word.

Instead, Lindsay just tilted her head slightly, and asked “What file?”

Griffon smiled.


	2. Call Me When You Get This

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is mostly stupidity. Hope you guys enjoy!

The camera, an old fashioned thing from the 21st century, was blinking red. He didn’t know if that was good, or bad, or anything in between, because he had never seen one before in his life. Who had cameras, anymore, anyway? Now, when armor could record every single moment of someone’s life, there was no point in lugging around a camera. Not when most of the population had been drafted, into wearing said armor.

No, physical photography was irrelevant. Technology had rendered it unimportant, and no one had looked back. Like when television took over from radio, or when phones dominated telegrams. Technology advances, and anything that won’t advance falls behind.

Luckily, after a while, the government stops searching old technology, and that was why Geoff had a camera in front of him.

The green figure by the camera waved at him, silently. A clear sign that the recording had started, and that he was going to be missing his cue, if he waited another second.

He cleared his throat, and waved a little at the camera. Honestly, he wasn’t even sure if the sound would work, but he still wanted to signify that he was saying something. Or maybe his mouth should do that for him.

“Hey, Griff.”

The camera didn’t react to his statement. There was no appearance of Griffon on the screen. No sign that she had received the message. There was nothing, but the cold and unwelcoming glass of the lens. It made him uncomfortable, but he rolled with it, anyway.

“Things are going pretty well, right now. Jack has us heading towards some weird nebula, and he won’t tell us where, but other than that, we’re all doing well. Especially the AI. Gavin’s actually the guy manning the camera, today.”

A green hand waved in front of the camera, before he himself dropped down in front of it. He hung from the top, upside down in front of the lens, with only his feet keeping him up.

“Hi!” He said, excitedly. There was a smile, that practically split apart his face. “I’m on bloody camera!”

His excitement drew the attention of the other AI, who had previously been doing irrelevant things- like keeping the ship moving. Even Ray, who had been frantically playing a game of invisible Tetris on his holographic screen, had directed his attention back at them.

Michael flickered over to them, and stared into the screen. He stared at his own reflection, and tilted his head, slightly. The amount of confusion in his expression was equivalent to a kitten seeing its own face in a mirror, for the first time. He didn’t seem very comfortable with cameras, either.

“Gavin, move.” The purple figure ordered. He encroached further to the screen, shoving the other AI out of the way to do so. Gavin slid, his feet disconnecting with the roof of the camera, and dropped down to the floor below. He screeched, all the way down, and pushed himself back onto his feet, within a second.

“I want to be on camera!” The green AI complained. He tried to shove Michael out of the way, but he wasn’t as strong as his friend. Michael stood his ground, without the difficulty that Gavin had faced.

“Well, you’re too ugly,” Michael retorted. “The screen’ll explode, if it sees your face.”

Their squabble was drawing the attention of the other AI in the vicinity. First, it was Ray, who paused his screen, and minimised it just enough to shove it into one of the pockets in his armor.

“Fucking got ‘em!” Ray exclaimed. He floated over to the camera, and his sudden interest was able to convince the others to pay attention, even more.

Ryan, who had been playing catch with the wall, dropped his tennis ball, without regard for it, It didn’t even hit the floor before it dissolved into code. With his attention distracted, there was nothing there to keep it existant. That was something that Geoff noticed about Ryan. Things mattered until they didn’t, and once they stopped mattering, they might as well stop being. According to him, at least.

“I’m going to kill you all. Shut up!” He complained. Moments later, the tennis ball was back in his hand, and back to smashing against the wall, with more ferocity than ever.

“Guys, please. Just let Geoff do his thing.” Jack tried, weakly. His attempt was meaningless, because the second that the youngest half of their team was irritated, things always went to shit.

“Michael, let me on camera! I like cameras!” Gavin begged. He climbed back on top of the machine, and crawled back to the lens. Michael reached over it, to push him away. It was a failed attempt, that only served to further anger Michael.

“Gavin. Gavin! No! Stay back! Gavin!” The purple figure screamed, as the other AI clung to the camera. Gavin refused to let go, still desperately trying to remain on the tiny platform that served as his floor. He really wanted to stay on that camera.

“This is Project-” Geoff tried, but was quickly cut off as Michael succeeded in pushing the green figure off. There was a large bout of screaming from the green man, as he tumbled towards the floor, despite his ability to fly. Geoff was pretty positive that he was only falling for dramatic effects. What an asshole.

Gavin hit the floor with an angry sound that could only be described as a squawk. Again, he managed to climb to his feet, easily. This only added to Michael’s aggression.

“Let me on camera, Michael!”

“Let me on camera, Michael!” Michael mocked, stressing the other AI’s accent beyond recognition. Really, even Gavin wasn’t that british!

“Let me on the damn-” Gavin’s command was cut off by an orange tennis ball, that soured just past his head. He was barely able to duck in time to avoid it, and he did so only narrowly. The ball disintegrated before it could even hit the wall behind him.

Ryan was still in his corner, but now he was standing, holding a tennis ball in one hand. The other hand was lazily sketching numbers into empty air. He was throwing the ball up and down, and angling an apathetic expression at the two arguing AI.

“You want to shut up, or am I going to have to make you?” The orange figure asked, calmly and slowly.

His threat had taken the attention of the rest of the crew, finally distracting Michael and Gavin from their spat. Gavin let out a small squeak, and glanced back behind him, where the tennis ball had flown past his head.

“Ryan, why?” He asked, with such a level of defeat that it stung Geoff’s heart a little. Then he remembered what they were arguing about, and the organ turned back into stone.

“Cause you’re a prick,” It was as fitting a remark as any, and earned an energetic snort from Michael. “You’re in this too, Michael.”

Any visage of humor slipped from Michael’s face, and was quickly replaced by resounding terror. Geoff couldn’t blame him. Somehow, even without the malware, Ryan was still the creepiest bastard in existence.

Well- second creepiest bastard in existence. Ryan still hadn’t beaten out Sigma for that title, as hard as he seemed to be trying. For reasons that Geoff didn’t want to think about, Sigma would always hold claim to that title.

“Can I get on camera, now?” Gavin asked, after a moment of silence. The statement shattered any hope that Geoff might actually be able to pull this video log back together.

Ryan’s sigh could have been picked up by the camera, due to the sheer volume of it. It wasn’t long, before there was another orange tennis ball flying towards Gavin’s face. This time, Gavin didn’t dodge it. It hit him in the face, silencing him, instantly.

“And this is Agent Alabama signing off for Project Achievement Hunter.” Geoff said, quickly, cutting off any more arguing that could have begun. He signalled for Gavin to turn off the camera, and ducked away before his AI could do anything stupid.

Gavin looked the most disappointed, when the blinking red light shut off. He slumped forward, looking genuinely disappointed that it had ended. Apparently, the green AI was a fan of cameras.

Ryan, on the other hand, looked the happiest with the end of camerawork for the day. Still, despite his pleasure, being Ryan, he could never be satisfied with anything that Geoff did.

“Project Achievement Hunter, really?” He criticized, eyebrows furrowed into the most scrutinizing expression that Geoff had ever seen.

“What? Project Achievement Hunter. We’re _hunters_ , who are trying to _achieve_ freedom!” Geoff defended. Ryan’s expression did not ease.

“Why not call us Project Freedom Hunter?”

“I like it. Makes us seem like a bunch of badasses.” Michael remarked. He flexed the (nonexistent) muscles in his arm, to further exemplify the statement.

“Yeah, we do need a lot of help with that.” Ray muttered. Geoff decided to ignore that remark.

As he was beginning to discover, it was better to ignore a lot of things that the AI said. They were usually either meaning to insult him or each other, most of the time. Sometimes, it was better just to stop listening.

Okay, most of the time it was better just to stop listening.

“So, it’s settled. We’re Project Achievement Hunter, and Ryan is still an asshole.” Geoff announced, with finality.

“What did _I_ do?” Ryan exclaimed, taking genuine offense to the jab.

“You just threw a ball at my head!” Gavin exclaimed, waving his arms around like a swarm of bees were attacking him.

“I did do that.” The red AI admitted, without a hint of regret. He gave the flailing figure a slight grin, and shrugged one shoulder.

“So we all agree that Ryan is an asshole?” Geoff asked. There were four nods from the other AI, and a grumble from the man in question.

“Everyone’s a critic.” Ryan muttered. Despite his apparent annoyance, the grin never left his face.

“Can we agree that Gavin is an asshole, too?” Michael offered.

“Michael!” The green figure exclaimed. He butchered the name, like he always did, and that only served to further Michael’s point.

“All in favor?” Geoff asked. Five hands, including his own, went straight into the air.

“Guys! I thought you were my friends!” Gavin was practically pouting, now. The expression didn’t work on any one of them. Military personnel (and equipment) weren’t exactly pushovers. In fact, they had specifically been trained not to be.

“What gave you that idea?” Michael asked, without shedding his grin.

“Michael!”

It didn’t take long before Ryan’s tennis ball was beating against the wall again, and Ray was starting to float back over to Michael and Gavin’s fight, and suddenly, it was as chaotic as it had been before Geoff had turned the camera off. It was like nothing had changed, at all. The AI had returned to the exact state that they had earlier. Apparently, annoying was a default for them.

Jack was the only relief. At least he was somewhat quiet, most of the time. Anyone who wasn’t screaming in Geoff’s ear was definitely a good person, in this situation.

And of course, because Geoff decided to think about that, Jack decided that he couldn’t have that flimsy layer of peace. No, Geoff could never be granted that. Never. Not at any point in all of time.

“Geoff?” The blue AI sounded confused, slightly unsure of himself. That only spelled out bad things for the near future.

Geoff practically sprinted to his side, out of worry. Jack was the pilot of this ship. If something had gone wrong- that he couldn’t handle- they would be going down. Going down meant either death or capture. That would not be a good thing.

“Check the radar.” Jack said. He stood atop a small red dot, that wouldn’t have been very scary, if it wasn’t closing in on them.

Red dots did not mean anything good. Red meant unauthorized. Dots meant that it was a ship. Red dots meant that it was an unauthorized ship approaching them. That was a definite not-good.

“Can we go any faster?” Geoff asked, urgently.

“You know what, Geoff?” There was a thick layer of sarcasm, in Jack’s voice, that Geoff didn’t like. “You’re right. I am an idiot. There’s an enemy ship sneaking up on us, and I’m going as slow as I possibly can. Damn. It’s a good thing we’ve got you, Geoff.”

There was a snicker from one of the other AI, and he couldn’t make out who it was.

“Wait, there’s a- what? Enemy ship? Can we go over that, please?” Ryan said, cutting off the stupid conversation that was bound to ensue.

“Should we make contact?” Gavin asked. It was definitely the stupidest question that Geoff had heard in his life.

“Why the fuck would we make contact with an enemy ship?”

“Maybe because they are about a hundred feet away, and closing.” Ray answered, with a little too much snark.

Geoff’s AI were really annoying, sometimes. It made him wonder how sarcastic Alpha had to be, for fragments to be this bitchy, constantly. The man must have been the biggest prick in the Milky Way. He had to have been worse than any Freelancer, by far, and that was saying something.

“Jack, please tell me you can get us out of this one?” Geoff did not want to die with the most annoying fragments of technology, in the universe, lodged into his brain. That was too horrible a death for any man to cope with.

“Am I allowed to lie?”

That wasn’t the reaction that Geoff expected from his pilot. It really should have been, though. Luck hadn’t been on his side since he had been assigned to Jack. The second that the blue figure was installed, any remnants of luck vanished as cool and calculated logic settled in to take its place.

If he had been lucky, he probably wouldn’t have found himself in this situation in the first place. He probably wouldn’t have found Gavin on Sidewinder, or Michael and Ray, or Ryan in that canyon. Instead, he would have been scrounging through more ruins, with one (quiet) AI floating beside him.

Okay, maybe he had gotten lucky. At least his life wasn’t boring.

“Geoff, they’re making contact.” Gavin said, nervously. He was staring at the screen, that was floating in his hands, watching as a holographic projection of audio formed above the glass.

“Agent Alabama, this is Agent Colorado and Agent Alaska of Project Recovery. We request your immediate abandonment of your vehicle and we also request your complete and absolute surrender. Give us what we want, and you can go free. We don’t want to hurt you, but we will if our hands are forced.” The voice resounding from Gavin’s screen sounded steady and calm.

That was surprising, if it really was Colorado. Colorado had always been an excitable man, quick to conversation and quick to ignoring UNSC rules. If Colorado had changed that much, and was suddenly willing to attack him, due to orders, alone, then Geoff’s luck really had run out.

Or maybe he was right, and it had run out a long time ago.

**Author's Note:**

> So here we are again! Not much is needed to preface this one. Just that it's got a little more action than the last bit. Also, I'm not even halfway through finishing it, but I've got a seven chapter head start, so I feel like this will be a good motivator to keep me going!
> 
> Well, hope you guys enjoy!


End file.
